W.Bros David Beggs and Willy Cardwell visited Macmillan Cancer, in November 2011, to present them with a donation of £2,200.00 from Lodge 669.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Ladies Night Charity Dinner Dance, and made it a great success, and also our thanks to Bro. Tom Lamont for his Bungee jump at the Odyssey Centre which contributed £400.00 to this total amount.

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. Providing practical, medical and financial support and push for better cancer care. Cancer affects us all. We can all help.

Click on the Macmillan Logo to Donate

The Ladies Night Charity Dinner Dance 14th October, held at the Clarion Hotel, Carrickfergus, was a great success. In total through Raffles, Auctions and Donations £1,800 was raised for Macmillan Cancer.
Bro. Tom Lamont added a further £400 to this total, from sponsorship for his Bungee jump off the Odyssey Centre, Belfast.

Please CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of pictures from the Ladies Night (compliments of David Beggs).

Presentation to Autism N. Ireland

In January 2011, Lodge 669 presents a cheque for £1,000 to Autism N. Ireland.

W. Bro. Mike Lewis was Installed by W.Bro. Dezy McCormick.

More than 80 Brethren from various Lodges, and candidates, gathered at the Lisburn Masonic Hall to enjoy a range of excellent Filipino recipes. All prepared by the Brethren’s wives.

The Provincial Grand Master of Antrim, Right Wor Bro John Dickson, and his Deputy,
Right Wor Bro Dennis R Millen both congratulated the Filipino Brethren on their generous hospitality,
and welcomed them to Irish Freemasonry.

The evening raised £720.00 to be shared by two local charities.Autism N.I., and Shine-A-Light.

A very successful dinner dance at this new venue, was enjoyed by everyone .

The evening raised £1,000 for the charity Autism NI, with a very generous sponsor
matching our donation with an additional £1,000.

Clay Pidgeon Shoot August 7th 2010

A great day out for Lodge Brethren, friends and family, to have a go at knocking down a few
clay pidgeons. The weather was very kind to us, and the BBQ food was very well recieved.

Lodge Widows Day Out at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

An acrylic painting of Freemasons’ Hall, Arthur Square, Belfast, was donated to the Arthur Square Charity Committee by local artist
Nichola Coogan, as a means of raising money for the Masonic Benevolent Funds and the “Shine a Light” organisation (Helping Children With Cancer).
Christmas cards and limited edition prints of
the painting were produced, and the origonal painting was successfully raffled.
Almost £1400.00 was raised by the project.

At the recent AGM of the Charity Committee,
the Chairman David Beggs presented
Mr Billy McCrory from the Shine a Light organisation with £720.00.
This money will go towards a family holiday in Spain for the children .
This will be a break for the families and a treat for the children as most of them have been in and out of hospital for treatment.

A big thank you has to go to Nichola Coogan
for donating her beautiful painting to charity.

Mrs Jane McKenna the founder of the LauraLynn Children’s Hospice, Dublin was in Belfast to receive her cheque for over £200,000 from the Freemasons of Ireland.

Before the event W. Brian McBride, and W. Bro. David Beggs had the opportunity to meet Jane, and congratulate her on the success of her campaign so far.

The ‘LauraLynn Children’s Hospice’ Foundation was set up in 2001 as a result of an enormous personal tragedy in the lives of Jane and Brendan McKenna which saw them lose both of their precious daughters Laura and Lynn in the space of just two years.

Demolay International

Some of our new Brethren are from the Philippines, and grew up with Freemasonry as members of Demolay International (Junior Freemasons)

DeMolay International (also known as the Order of DeMolay), founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1919, is an international youth fraternity for young men. DeMolay derives its name from Jacques DeMolay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

DeMolay is open for membership to young men between the ages of 12 to 21, and currently has about 36,000 members in the United States and Canada and several thousand more world wide. It uses a model of mentoring; adult men and women called advisors, often past DeMolay members or fathers and mothers of DeMolays, mentor the active Demolay members. An advisor is referred to as ‘Dad Smith’ instead of ‘Mr. Smith’, in respect of Frank Land and his fatherly role to the founding members. The mentoring focuses on the development of civic awareness, leadership skills and personal responsibility.

Founded by a Freemason, DeMolay is closely modelled after Freemasonry, and like Freemasonry, members are initiated into DeMolay through ritual and an allegorical program. However, it is not directly connected to Freemasonry. DeMolay is considered to be part of the Masonic Family along with other youth groups like Job’s Daughters, and the Rainbow Girls. Unlike in Job’s Daughters, a young man does not need to have a family tie or sponsor in a Masonic organization to join DeMolay.

DeMolay has seven Cardinal Virtues, which are the soul structure of what they follow. Those Cardinal Virtues are:

Love between a parent and child (Filial Love)
Reverence for sacred things
Courtesy
Comradeship
Fidelity
Cleanness
Patriotism
An aspiring member would be referred to as a “petitioner” or “Prospect”

RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND RETRIEVAL

Sir George Clark Memorial Masonic Lodge No. 669 continued with their joint goals of providing enlightenment about our order and encouraging membership, with a men only Open Night at Freemasons’ Hall, Arthur Square, Belfast on Saturday 25th October 2008

This was a follow up to the Open Night held in May 2008 that was open to everyone – men, women, family, friends and children.

Following the October communication, the members of Lodge 669 welcomed 17 gentlemen interested in Freemasonry into their Lodge Room. The Lodge brethren still wore their regalia and also present were the resplendent figures of RW Bro Dennis Millen the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Antrim, VW Bro Dessie McCormick PPJGW, and W Bro Ivor McAllister PPGI.

Following some informal chat, the guests were welcomed to the Lodge room by W. Bro. Norman Lacey the W. Master of Lodge 669, who gave an interesting talk covering the History, and Aims of Freemasonry. The areas discussed were: secrecy ( or lack of it ) about the Craft, how Freemasonry had developed from the bands of Operative Masons, the role of the Progressive, Administration, and Ritual orientated Officers of the lodge, and the benefits of involvement with Freemasonry.

This was followed by a discourse from our Almoner W Bro David Beggs regarding our charitable works and the role of the Almoner in the Lodge.

RW Bro Dennis Millen then spoke and, without detracting in any way from the charitable aspects of the order, highlighted the benefits of fellowship and personal development, both important aspects of membership. There being no questions all present adjourned to the function room where all had a most present social evening. The enjoyment of all present was obvious from the noise and hilarity at the festive board.

The visitors included new people interested in joining the order, some people whose attendance or membership had lapsed, and a few lost souls, new to the Province of Antrim, who were missing their involvement with Freemasonry.
People had got in contact with the lodge through websites as well as by personal contact. Lodge 669 is now in the happy position of having 13 additional people on their books and are involved in ongoing discussions with several more.
Our new contacts have in turn introduced people from their circle of friends to Freemasonry. The result is that L669 and Freemasonry are becoming known in different sectors of society.
The majority of potential members are in their 30s, married with children, and are just average people who want to get involved and find out more about the order.

Lodge “Open Night” 24th May 2008

Freemason’s Hall in Arthur Square was the venue on Saturday, 24 May 2008, for an Open Night of Masonic and Non-Masonic visitors to Lodge 669.
A total of 74 people attended this new style of event for the Lodge.
Family, friends, Lodge widows, potential candidates, and yes, even children came along to what was a very informative and enjoyable evening.

The Brethren of L669 were delighted to have in attendance the Provincial Deputy Grand Master R.W. Bro Denis Millen, accompanied by his wife Barbara, and also two of the Trustees of Freemasons’ Hall, Arthur Square, W. Bro. Alan Patterson and W. Bro. Ronnie Wilson.
W. Bro. Patterson’s father W. Bro. Arthur Patterson was the first Senior Warden of Lodge 669 and served as W. Master in 1939.

The regular meeting of the lodge was held, and following it’s closing, the Masonic brethren still wearing their regalia, invited all the visitors into the Lodge room.
This was the first time many of the visitors had been in a Masonic lodge room and there was great interest in the regalia and jewels of office worn by the brethren and particularly the finery of the P.D.G. Master.

W. Bro. Norman Lacey the W. Master of Lodge 669 gave a short talk, outlining the links between operative and speculative masons, the background of the order, the way in which items associated with Masons were used as an allegory as guidance for our conduct, the roles of the lodge officers detailed, and links with Provincial Grand Lodge of Antrim explained.
An interesting and open question and answer session followed with some searching questions from the guests.

W. Bro. Ronnie Wilson gave a short talk on the recently renovated Freemasons’ Hall detailing some of the work involved, and explaining our desire to open the Hall for greater usage and to enhance links between Freemasonry and the Public at large.
He then led a conducted tour of the hall explaining the layout and function of the various rooms, detailing the renovation work and outlining the history of the personalities after whom the rooms were named. This highly informative tour was thoroughly enjoyed by all concerned.

A ‘White Table’ festive board was then held in the large function room, with Florence and her team from Fernhill Catering providing a very tasty and high quality buffet supper. W. Bro. Rennie McGrath entertained us in song, and W.Bro. John Cook had us laughing at his funny stories.

This entertainment was interspersed by short talks on:
‘Masonic Charitable Works’ by W. Bro. David Beggs Lodge Almoner and Vice Chairman of Arthur Square Charity Committee, ‘Freemasonry from the perspective of a Mason’s Wife’ by Mrs Ada Elliot – wife of one of our members, and a talk on ‘Masonic Equality and Famous Masons’ illustrated by the Rudyard Kipling poem:
‘The Mother Lodge’ given by W. Bro Brian McBride.

The Provincial Deputy Grand Master R. W. Bro. Denis Millen congratulated the
W. Master and Brethren on the success of the event, and he was particularly pleased to see children included.

Photographs of the event were taken by Mr Peter Irvine who’s late father
Bro Desmond Irvine was a member of Cambridge Lodge. CLICK HERE